Double bubble & then wobble
Profit-taking plays the spoilsport

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Mumbai, May 16: Ecstatic investors today hoisted the Sensex above the 25000-mark in morning trading on the BSE today, but the excitement fizzled out by the afternoon and the bellwether index ended the day just 216 points higher at 24121.74.

For about twenty-five minutes from 9.46am the markets were in thrall of the Modi wave sweeping the country, and the Sensex swayed above the rarefied air of 25000 at that time. However, profit-booking set in very quickly with the consolidation of the morning trends, and the index started falling.

At one time in the afternoon, the index inexplicably tanked in a 30-second dive that wiped out over Rs 2-lakh-crore of market capitalisation.

Mirroring the Sensex, the 50-scrip Nifty of the NSE crossed the 7500-mark for the first time to hit 7563.50. However with profit-booking, it settled at 7203, a rise of almost 80 points, or 1.12 per cent.

After opening strong at 24271.54, the Sensex first hit 25000 at 9.36am. It took a small dip only to burst past the magic mark again at 9:46am, touching a life-time high of 25375.63 at 10:02am, a gain of 1470 points from the previous close. However, profit-taking ensued after 10.23am when it became clearer that Modi was set to form the next government.

It was more-or-less a downhill journey after that and the Sensex briefly slipped into the negative territory to touch a low of 23873.16 at 1:47pm.

The market capitalisation in the morning was put at Rs 82,04,675 crore — a sharp Rs 3 lakh crore increase in investor wealth that had built up in three trading sessions.

But at 1:47pm, the market cap sank to Rs 80,58,064 crore as the bellwether index dived.

“While it was a stupendous result for the NDA and the BJP in particular, the markets had already priced it in and that too, to perfection. The markets were expecting that Narendra Modi will secure a majority and once this was confirmed, investors resorted to profit taking,” Paras Bothra, VP-equity research, Ashika Stock Broking, told The Telegraph.

Rupee rise

In the forex markets, the rupee closed at an 11-month high of 58.79 per dollar, a rise of 50 paise, or 0.84 per cent. The Indian currency resumed strong at Rs 59 per dollar and later moved in a range of 58.62 and 59.11 per dollar.

Dealing room sources said that the central bank was seen intervening during the session, by purchasing dollars.